Your Vermont eBird Mission...from the Vermont Center for EcoStudies
Bank Swallow photo by Derek Rogers from nature.org
From redeyednblue:
The Central Park Effect is an awesomely nerdy looking film that will be screened at SXSW this week that explores the wide range of birds that flock to Central Park, the reasons for their migration, and the dedicated birders who love them. But perhaps more importantly, the film features author Jonathan Franzen saying “dweeb”.
A fabulous new video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology; a quickie tutorial on warblers. I want to bird with this guy Chris. Watch him…he’s so excited about what he’s seeing in just this little patch of woods. ENJOY!
Bird Is A Verb Weekend
Here’s the birding adventure crew from our first Bird is a Verb weekend at Seyon Lodge State Park in Groton, VT. Big thanks to Rochelle, Jessie Mae, Emmett, and Adam from Vermont State Parks who helped us pull this whole thing off. Can’t wait for next year…mark your calendar, our tentative plan is to head back there for the first weekend in June. Bird list is below, along with our unique mammal sightings and a little fall foliage eye candy.
Barred Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Common Loon
Canada Goose
Ring-necked Duck
Osprey
Cooper’s Hawk
Accipiter sp.
Ruffed Grouse
American Robin
Blue Jay
Catbird
Common Raven
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Common Yellowthroat
Black-throated Green Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black & White Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Northern Parula
Blue-headed Vireo
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Eastern Phoebe
Hermit Thrush Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Northern Flicker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Our short list of mammals wasn’t too bad either…
Snowshoe Hare
Short-tailed Ermine
Black Bear
Thanks Katie Woodruff for the fabulous photos!
eBird's Hurricane Irene redux
eBird is encouraging folks to get this week’s bird sightings uploaded into the database, especially if you had sightings of birds blown in by the storm. The big star of the storm turns out to be the White-tailed Tropicbird - click the link to see pictures and a list of other reports that have all ready come in.
Get Your Bird On at Seyon Lodge this Fall
I had the wonderful opportunity to spend almost 24 hours scouting out the site where my sister Amy & I will be hosting our first ever Bird is a Verb Weekend September 23rd-25th. I jumped in my little orange car on Wednesday and took the almost 2 hour drive down to Seyon Lodge State Park in the heart of Groton State Forest.The lodge is set on a beautiful trout pond in the midst of 27,000 acres of State Forest. With only a short time to try to get as familiar with all the trails as possible, I headed out to make the loop around Noyes Pond after I dropped my bag off in my cozy room on the second floor.
Noyes Pond is well know to folks who like to fly fish and the pond is only accessible for fishing by row boats the Lodge rents to guests. This has kept the pond in an incredibly pristine state, free of invasive weeds and impact from heavy use. I took a loop around the pond on a trail that went from mixed spruce-fir forest to mixed deciduous forest and delighted me with a nice suite of birds. Spotted sandpipers were busy rock-hopping along the shoreline and waves of Golden-crowned Kinglet families flitted overhead with a following of fall warblers in the mix. A whole family of Winter Wrens boldly scolded me the next morning on the same trail with bouncing deep knee bends, trying to look as fierce as possible as they checked me out.
Now, it’s obvious the weekend will be all about birds but satisfying a birders appetite will not go neglected. And I gotta say, Emmett who was the innkeeper on duty while I was there did not disappoint.
Check out the mushroom risotto with fresh green beans and dill from the Lodge’s garden! Whoa…and get a load of the InnKeeper’s Breakfast I had after two hours of birding in the early morning. Poached eggs on a bed of greens with a hollandaise sauce, local bacon and toast, with a killer cup of coffee-or two! I was ready to head back out for more birds after that belly pleaser.
I guess what I’m getting at is that it is sure to be a fabulous weekend in September. Please check out our plan for the Bird is Verb Weekend at the Vermont State Parks website. Space is limited and you know you don’t want to miss… early fall in Vermont, birding with a sister duo you’ll never forget and the quaint yet decadent beauty of Seyon Lodge!
List of birds in my 24 hour birding adventure in Groton State Forest:
Spotted Sandpiper
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Belted Kingfisher
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Magnolia Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Veery
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
Black & White Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Downy Woodpecker
Blue-headed Vireo
Great Blue Heron
Pilieated Woodpecker
Black-throated Green Warbler
Red-eyed Vireo
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Cedar Waxwing
American Crow
Blackburnian Warbler
White-throated Sparrow
American Robin
Common Yellowthroat
American Goldfinch
Song Sparrow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Winter Wren
Common Loon
Wood Thrush
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Ovenbird
Brown Creeper
Hermit Thrush
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Chipping Sparrow
Mourning Warbler
Canada Warbler
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Broad-winged Hawk
POV (Point Of View) Big Birding Day…have you seen it? What did you think? Are we made out to be freaks & geeks again?
Fieldwork Checklist from Crotalinae…
Fabulous list especially as some of us are dying for the snow to melt so that we truly can enjoy the coming spring field season!
While this is mostly for my own benefit, I guess others might find it interesting all the stuff I pack whenever I’m going into the field:
FIELD NOTE SUPPLIES:
- Field Notebook (archival paper, small binder)
- Light-resistant prismacolors
- Micron pen
- Small notebook to take down observations
- Digital Recorder
Monthly Bird Walk at Missisquoi
This is how Russ enjoys birding on the Stephen Young Marsh Trail. This morning was bright and gorgeous, a bit chilly and the birds were sparse. We had a total of 5 species, but a lovely little flock of 20+ American Tree Sparrows.
We also found this:
Which we think is a muskrat jaw bone. Russ actually took it home to try and clinch the id. I’m going with muskrat, my second guess was rabbit. Not much else left in the area to solve the mystery but some body fat…ewwwww. (See the milky blobs in the upper right corner of the photo below.)
First of the season Fox Sparrows spotted on this weekend’s monthly bird walk at the Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge in Swanton, VT. Bummer you didn’t join me…turns out only Ken, the other walk leader and I showed up! The heavy rains on Friday from the N’oreaster kept people away but not the sparrows. Here’s the eBird report:
Due to the soggy weather, we had just 2 observers on Saturday's walk. We found 16 species and a total of 318 individual birds. New species added to the list this month were Yellow-rumped Warbler and Fox Sparrow. After 8 months of bird monitoring walks, 90 participants have observed 85 species and 1497 individual birds.
Location: MNWR-Old Railroad Passage Observation date: 10/16/10
Canada Goose 12 flyover Northern Harrier 1 flyover Ring-billed Gull 100 flyover; one large, loose flock Mourning Dove 2 Blue Jay 4 American Crow 3 Black-capped Chickadee 8 House Wren 1 American Robin 6 European Starling 80 Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 Fox Sparrow 2 Song Sparrow 3 White-throated Sparrow 3 White-crowned Sparrow 2 Red-winged Blackbird 90 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/vt)
Yesterday I drove up to Lake Carmi State Park to explore the bog and lake shore of this beautiful natural area in northern Vermont. Had a delightful early morning birding and as the sun warmed the bog the birds were energized. At times I felt like a bird plow, pushing kinglets, sparrows, juncos and chickadees out in front of me in every direction. The Hermit Thrushes were a bit of a tease at first, just calling from the wooded area along the shore. I finally tracked them down eating dogwood berries and twitching their tails as they do.
Here’s my eBird report:
Location: Lake Carmi State Park - Campground Roads
Observation date: 10/11/10
Number of species: 16
Canada Goose - Branta canadensis 11
Ruffed Grouse - Bonasa umbellus 3
Hairy Woodpecker - Picoides villosus 2
Pileated Woodpecker - Dryocopus pileatus 1
Blue Jay - Cyanocitta cristata 5
American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos 3
Black-capped Chickadee - Poecile atricapillus 21
Brown Creeper - Certhia americana 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet - Regulus satrapa 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Regulus calendula 5
Hermit Thrush - Catharus guttatus 4
American Robin - Turdus migratorius 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - Dendroica coronata 15
Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia 9
White-throated Sparrow - Zonotrichia albicollis 7
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - Junco hyemalis hyemalis/carolinensis 23
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/vt)
Made it to a couple of Vermont State Parks this weekend to do a little birding and breathing in of the autumn air. Here’s my eBird report for Alburg Dunes State Park:
Location: Alburg Dunes State Park
Observation date: 10/10/10
Number of species: 14
Canada Goose - Branta canadensis 35
Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias 1
Downy Woodpecker - Picoides pubescens 3
Blue-headed Vireo - Vireo solitarius 1
Blue Jay - Cyanocitta cristata 5
American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos 7
Black-capped Chickadee - Poecile atricapillus 23
White-breasted Nuthatch - Sitta carolinensis 1
Brown Creeper - Certhia americana 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet - Regulus satrapa 7
Yellow-rumped Warbler - Dendroica coronata 12
Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia 7
White-throated Sparrow - Zonotrichia albicollis 5
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - Junco hyemalis hyemalis/carolinensis 13
